ployee discount for everyone to get a total value of over eight thousand four hundred dollars on this silverado. get the chevy employee discount for everyone today. donald trump is refusing to sign the coronavirus stimulus package, and millions of americans are about to feel the pain. new information about the explosion in nashville leads to perplexing questions. the pandemic's deadliest month. ooeps as vaccines are distributed, covid-19 has killed more americans in december than in any other month. live from cnn world headquarters in atlanta, welcome to all of you watching here in the united states, canada, and around the world. i'm kim brunhuber.

this is "cnn newsroom. " the economic toll of the coronavirus has been staggering. now millions of americans have just lost unemployment benefits and may soon lose eviction protection. president trump refuses to sign the $900 billion coronavirus relief bill. the deadline passed three hours ago. it also means that government funding runs out monday. without more action from congress, a government shutdown will happen at midnight monday night. and that moratorium on evictions expires at the end of the month. despite the white house giving its blessing to the deal that passed congress days ago, mr. trump now says it doesn't give americans enough money. he tweeted saturday demanding congress raise the $600 in

direct payments to $2,000, and also blaming china. jeremy diamond is traveling with the president and has the latest from florida. >> reporter: president trump on saturday appeared to only dig in his heels further on his objections to this coronavirus relief bill. the president insisting once again on saturday that he wants to see those stimulus checks to americans more than tripled, from $600 to $2,000, tweeting, i simply want to get our great people $2,000 rather than the measly $600 that is now in the bill. also, stop the billions of dollars in pork. now president trump is saying here that all he wants is to increase these stimulus checks, but if that was really his goal, the president might have spoken up before this legislation was passed. the president only called this bill a disgrace and suggested he might not sign it or veto it after congress passed this legislation by an overwhelming bipartisan majority, a veto-proof majority at that. president trump in the four days

since he made that threat, he hasn't been on the phone with congressional leadership, he hasn't been meeting with advisers to find a way to salvage this relief. instead, we've seen the president at his mar-a-lago resort palling around with friends here, going out golfing as he did on thursday and on friday. and the president is doing this at a time when not only are key deadlines coming up to sign legislation, but at a time when millions of americans are in need of that financial relief. more than 20 million americans currently unemployed, and 12 million americans will lose their benefits this weekend if the president does not immediately sign this legislation. those unemployment benefits, supplemental unemployment benefits, provided by the federal government during this coronavirus pandemic. there are other key dates also looming. tuesday the government will shut down amid a global pandemic if the president doesn't sign this legislation into law. and then at the end of the month, at the end of the year, december 31st, that eviction

moratorium also expires. so again, critically needed relief for americans who are struggling right now. and the president could just sign this piece of legislation and that relief would quickly get disbursed. there is also concerns about vaccine did. there's a lot of vaccine distribution funding in this legislation as well. that was one of the message that is we heard from president-elect joe biden on saturday, who warned if the president doesn't sign this legislation, not only would he be hurting small businesses, american families, but also potentially these very complex plans to distribute a coronavirus vaccine. >> let's take a look at the warning from president-elect joe biden. he didn't mince words, urging president trump to sign the bill. jessica dean has the details. >> reporter: president-elect joe biden has spent his holiday weekend in wilmington, delaware, attending mass on saturday

afternoon. he also put out a statement on saturday imploring president trump to sign the covid relief bill, calling it an abdication of responsibility that could have dire consequences for millions of americans. part of his statement read in part, quote, it is the day after christmas and millions of families don't know if they'll be able to make ends meet because of president donald trump's refusal to sign an economic relief bill approved by congress with an overwhelming and bipartisan majority. biden has called this covid relief bill a down payment. he plans on going back to congress and asking for an even bigger package once he assumes office on january 20th. he has mentioned he wants more more unemployment benefits, direct payments to individuals, also payments to state and local governments, giving them some aid. again, calling this a down payment and asking the president to sign it as soon as possible. on sunday, we're told

president-elect biden will be meeting with his transition advisers. jessica dean, cnn, wilmington, delaware. professor of government at university of essex joins me from colchester, england, to talk about these issues. thanks so much for being here. the easy way is for the president just to sign this. but the hard way, let's say, is there a chance the president can move enough republicans to increase the check to $2,000? after all, democrats are on board. >> well, that's what the house democrats had tried to do, exactly what they had tried to do, which the republicans in the house had rejected, to get the package up to $2,000 per person. but the republicans had rejected this. so this is why this is somewhat confusing. i don't understand what trump's end game is here, because he's definitely hurting the republicans, because even his own spokesperson had said they were going to be providing this

relief, the secretary of the treasury, steven mnuchin, had said this as well, that this type of aid would be coming later in the week. now he's thrown everything into disarray for the republicans. but it's not just the republicans that are affected, of course, it's very much something that hurts everybody, all americans. as the report indicated, you have millions of americans that are affected by this decision to not support this aid package. so there's a possibility that the house will vote on this again, and they can get it up to $2,000, as trump was hoping. the other issue, as you indicated what he thought was a problem, not just that it was $2,000 is what was needed, but also that some of the aid was going to foreign aid and to pork, along the reporter indicated, and these were things he had disagreed with. >> but all of those things were things his aides had negotiated

with congressional republicans and democrats there. so the fact that president trump is only making these demands now, after the bill was passed and congress left town, what does that suggest about where the president's attention was during the time his aides were working with congress to craft this? >> it's a great question, but i think this demonstrates that he is still focused on the fact that he has lost the election and he's trying to just get into some sort of scorched earth policy? i mean, it's very difficult to really understand his mindset. but he is trying to destroy any kind of potential aid package by just not doing anything. you're right, the republicans and the democrats had finally come to an agreement on something here. all he needed to do was just sign it and support it. this was a win-win situation. but he's distracted, maybe he's focused on other things, on trying to project this narrative that everything in congress is

corrupt and that the elections were corrupt and that he doesn't want to take any part of it. i think it's actually very detrimental to his own party, as i mentioned before, this is not going to help republicans. with the really important senate race in georgia coming up in january, i don't see how this is going to help those senators that are trying to beat a very, very close race, the two democratic challengers there. >> let's delve into that, then. we have both of the republican senators here, purdue and loeffler, voted for the bill. purdue had ads running yesterday saying they've delivered these billions of dollars in covid relief, which of course hasn't happened yet. yesterday level letter said she'd be open to the idea of bigger checks but other things would have to be cut. where does that leave them? will there be a cost to them in these races, do you think? >> well, that's the big question, whether or not voters

in georgia are going to punish loeffler and purdue because of trump, because they're republicans, or whether or not they're just going to vote with their party or with the candidate that they feel is best able to serve in the senate. it's really difficult to tell. now in the big election in 2020, of course, we saw that republicans actually did better than trump, even though trump did win 74 million votes. but the question that republicans really have to ask themselves is, how much of a help trump really is to their party. we're seeing sort of rumblings of, should republicans who disagree with trump, those that were part of the lincoln project, should there be a breakaway from trumpism? which i find to be incredibly dangerous, because trump is so unpredictable. and he is so self-centered. you just don't know what he's going to do from one moment to the next. so while on paper you have his aides saying, we're agreeing to this, we're going to support

this. then he does a 180 and changes his mind. this is really damaging to republicans. as i already mentioned, the i can't senate race, because they had come out and supported it, now they're in a corner as to what they're supposed to do. are they supposed to support trump? or are they supposed to disagree with this? so it makes it very difficult for the senators in the georgia race there. >> yeah, very tight -- small tightrope to walk there. natasha linstead, thank you very much. >> thanks for having me. a major development in nashville, tennessee. investigators say the explosion christmas morning that devastated parts of downtown was likely a suicide bombing. that's the word from two law enforcement sources. the fbi says there's no indication of any other suspects or threats of more explosives. the blast injured three people and damaged dozens of buildings. so if it was a suicide bombing,

who did it and why? we're still waiting to hear if there are answers. saturday, the case took law enforcement to a home in a nashville suburb. an rv that might match the one that exploded was photographed there last year. cnn's simone peres is in nashville with the latest on the investigation. >> reporter: authorities in nashville continue to try to figure out the motive behind the christmas morning attack. one belief from authorities is that this was a suicide bombing but they don't know what led up to the events. they are exploring every theory at this point, every motive, as they work back in identifying the person, also trying to learn the motive. what caused this person to come here and cause such a massive explosion? for the last 48 hours, authorities have been going through every piece of evidence, collecting debris from a lot of the destruction. authorities say some 40 buildings were damaged here.

as we know, three people were injured. but right now, for people here in nashville, the one thing authorities say is that they should feel safe, that police are not looking for anyone in connection with this bombing, at this point they are just trying to get the streets reopened and work this investigation to try and learn a motive. shimon prokupecz, cnn, nashville, tennessee. ahead, take a look at the home federal agents spent searching, plus i'll talk with a fbi former special agent as to what they may be looking for. covid-19, the u.s. breaking record after record. why december is america's deadliest month so far. don't settle for silver #1 for diabetic dry skin* #1 for psoriasis symptom relief* and #1 for eczema symptom relief* gold bond champion your skin

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health experts in the u.s. are bracing for yet another surge in cases, just like we saw after other holidays. that's the last thing the country needs right now. covid-19 has claimed the lives of 1 out of every 1,000 americans, according to data from johns hopkins university. with four days left, december

has already been the deadliest month for the u.s. since the pandemic began. more than 63,000 people have died this month, bringing the total number of lives lost to nearly 332,000. but the vaccines are gradually getting into the arms of americans. officials say about 2 million doses have been administered across the country. u.s. officials are especially worried about the staggering increase in hospitalizations, so they've targeted restrictions like travel from the uk as a way to stem the spread while avoiding closing down the economy. cnn's evan mcmorris santora explains from new york. >> reporter: the pandemic numbers in new york are continuing to creep in the wrong direction this weekend. in a tweet, governor andrew cuomo reported higher numbers of hospitalizations and a positivity rate over 5.3%. it wasn't long ago the number was regularly below 3%. the numbers are worrying.

despite the vaccine rollout, officials are concerned this second surge could get worse. about a week ago, governor andrew cuomo in new york asked major airlines to voluntarily impose a testing requirement on all travelers to new york from the united kingdom. the goal was trying to stop the spread of that uk variant we've heard so much about that's supposed to be very, very contagious. on friday, the federal government backed up cuomo's request, requiring that all travelers into the united states from the united kingdom get a negative test within 72 hours of their flight in the united kingdom. governor cuomo welcomed the news. we've seen a real effort in new york and across the country to not impose the kind of blanket restrictions we saw in the spring during the first surge of this disease, but the numbers are still very concerning. officials are trying to do targeted new restrictions like this travel restriction, this testing requirement coming through the united kingdom, in the goal of keeping the disease in check, while also trying to keep things open. evan mcmorris-santoro, cnn, new

york. . several countries in the eu are officially launching their coronavirus vaccination programs right now. health workers were the first to get vaccinated in italy just moments ago. france, spain, and others are also starting this sunday. but some countries were able to get a head start. a member of slovakia's pandemic commission became the first person to get the pfizer-biontech shot on saturday. cnn's cyril vanier joining us, first to you. take us through the rollout there. just in time, i imagine, as officials there in france aren't ruling out yet another lockdown? >> reporter: yeah, that's a very good observation. the rollout is going to be extremely gradual. really, the mass deployment is only going to start next month. but since all european countries or a majority are starting today, france wants to be in

that group. 90 minutes from now, they are delivering the very first jabs to about a dozen patients in a geriatric ward of a hospital outside paris. that's 10:30 a.m. local time. as i said, very gradual. just two establishments today, two dozen next week. they're expecting to bring 100 establishments, mostly care homes, online next week. by the end of february they're hoping to have vaccinated 1 million of the most vulnerable people in france. that is to say, the oldest and those who are most at risk of dying if they get the coronavirus. and then that's phase one. phase two, another 14 million people. so people who are retirement age, 65 and above. and that should carry us till -- through late spring, which means that the vaccine won't be made available to all adults, including people like myself, until probably this summer. so that's the schedule. that's the timeline we have right now. but it is going to depend on

getting more vaccines coming online. because this pfizer vaccine with all the logistical challenges that it involves and the cold chain that one's particularly hard to roll out. so the french government is hoping that more vaccines will become available soon. >> all right. thank you so much, cyril vanier in paris, appreciate that. now to atika shubert for an update on spain. the vaccinations set to begin there, just as you have discovered the uk variant in spain as well? >> reporter: that's right. and it is a matter of concern. so far only four cases have been detected here in spain, all in the madrid area. none of them very severe, but it is still a matter of concern, according to madrid health authorities. fortunately, it does seem to be confined at the moment. in the meantime, the vaccine is rolling out. guadalajara in central spain will be where the first injections are conducted to take

place. and then it will roll out across the 17 autonomous communities here. the plan is to try and really focus on those most vulnerable members of the community, specifically the elderly ll ll residence homes, frontline workers as well. the first phase of the vaccination program will mean what we're looking at unless the next 12 weeks, spain is hoping to get 350,000 doses of the vaccine every week, ramping up to about 4.5 million doses in 12 weeks. the aim is to vaccinate more than 2 million people in that time. it's a huge logistical effort, and really the biggest and quickest rollout of vaccines the country has ever seen, kim. >> all right, thanks so much, journalist atika shubert in valencia. barbie net toe in rome. particularly poignant there after the suffering italy went through this spring?

>> reporter: that's right. it really feels like italy's come full circle with the vaccine. five people were vaccinated this morning, doctors, nurses and a medical researcher and they'll vaccinate other people. italy has 9,750 doses today but expecting to give out 450,000 doses this week and continue to scale that up. it's a really big effort here to try to vaccinate so many people. so many vaccines will go to the lombardi region that suffered so much. italy now having the highest number deaths in europe, over 71,000. over half those deaths happened in the second wave, in the first one are. >> thank you so much, barbie nadeau live in rome, appreciate it. federal agents are beginning to piece together details of that christmas morning explosion

in downtown nashville. we watched as they searched a suburban home for clues. the latest on the investigation just ahead. it's a unique crafted blend of vitamins, zinc, other minerals, and herbs. take on your day with airborne.

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watching here in the united states, canada, and around the world. i'm kim brunhuber and you're watching "cnn newsroom." the blast that store through historic downtown nashville on christmas morning was likely the work of a suicide bomber. that's what investigators are now saying. and the tip about the camper truck that blew up has led federal agents to search a home in a nashville suburb. natasha chen has the latest. >> reporter: federal investigators have been at this

property most of saturday and left in the early evening after hours of work. the fbi tell us that this was court-authorized activity. first we saw a bomb technician team come and clear the property to make sure it was safe to enter. then we saw an evidence team come in and spend hours going in and out of the house. this fence line behind me surrounds a yard, and we did see them go into that yard through a side door. what we understand is they were meticulously going through documenting and photographing what they saw inside the house as it was, and then we did see them take out bags of evidence. neighbors were very perplexed to see all this going on. they did tell me that they have seen an rv parked at this property. when we showed them images from google street view of this property in years past where an rv has been parked there, they did recognize that one. one neighbor said they saw it here over the summer. another neighbor saying it's been parked here as recently as in the last few weeks.

the marking of that rv is similar, similar to the one that was involved in the explosion downtown. a law enforcement source tells cnn they can't be entirely sure, because the one involved in the explosion was destroyed in the blast. steve moore is a retired fbi specialty agent and cnn contributor. we know a bit more than when we spoke yesterday. what do you make of the new developments? >> it's just as bizarre as everything else we've heard. right now it looks like the fbi is fairly certain that the remains found in the van were the perpetrator. so there is nobody outstanding. and so now motive becomes a real hard one, because he's apparently, at least as far as we know, left no manifesto, no

list of grievances, no reason for this bomb. and in that way it kind of brings up the shooting in las vegas years ago. >> i covered that one extensively, and they still -- it's still quite a mystery. so take us through, then, how they're trying to solve that, as i think we're seeing pictures of them searching his home and so on. what exactly are they looking for, how can they crack that? >> they're going to be talking to anybody who knows him, anybody who has interacted with him in the past, as far back as they can go. they're also going to look at his electronic profile, his computers, his phones. anything that would show what he was looking at, what he was interested in, what he was doing, what he was doing with his money. was he buying things? how did he get these explosives?

how did he wire, how did he set up this device? and what's going to be interesting for the fbi to find out is when he began all this planning, when the decision was made. as we saw in the shooting in vegas, it was probably a year before that he started stockpiling weapons. in this case, we're seeing indications that months ago, possibly, he had a plan to end his life and go forward with this. but they're going to want to start planning down to a day or a week and try to find out whether there was a trigger, a motivation for him to go that direction. >> something like a job loss or a personal event in his life. but what about the location, then, in front of the at&t transmission building? what does that suggest to you?

>> that is something where we're going to have to, again, dig in. as we talked yesterday, when somebody is crazy enough to blow themselves up with a bomb of that size in a populated area of a city, then they're going to be just as unpredictable and crazy about the reasons for doing it, for doing it there, in fact. you might find something as trivial as cell disruption, a dispute over a cell phone, may have caused a problem. i'm hypothesizing here, obviously. maybe one of the restaurants nearby, he was thrown out or has a problem with somebody there. you're going to have to all but write a biography on this guy if you're the case agent to try to find out what possibly motivated

the location of the bomb and why he actually did it. unfortunately, as we learned in las vegas, sometimes you just never do have a concrete reason. >> maybe helping -- people are giving tips and so on. authorities have likened it to solving a giant jigsaw puzzle. what are the challenges that authorities have when they have to sift through those hundreds of leads? >> yeah, leads and people calling in with tips are a blessing and a curse. because they are tremendously valuable. and the problem is, out of every 100 you get, maybe 2 or 3 are going to be those gold nuggets that you're looking for. and so part of the manpower issue is sifting through 98 to find the 2 that are important.

so that creates a huge backlog. i can remember after 9/11, the days right afterwards, we were measuring our amount of leads and tips in feet, by stacked paper. i mean, sometimes it gets just that ridiculous. >> that's why authorities are pleading for patience here. steve moore, thank you for joining us, we appreciate it. >> thank you for having me. coronavirus continues its relentless spread across the world. after the break, we'll get analysis from an infectious disease specialist. ♪ rub your palms,

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california has become the first state in the u.s. to record 2 million coronavirus cases. the director of the los angeles health department says that on average, one person in the county dies every 10 minutes

from covid-19. doctors and nurses in the state are working themselves to exhaustion. paul vercammen has more from los angeles. >> reporter: the war against covid-19 in california being waged on two fronts. one in the hospitals. we have almost 19,000 people hospitalized, 4,000 of those patients are in intensive care units. and that means staffing ramped up, doctors and nurses being called in on their days off, working longer shifts, and literally expanding the intensive care units as well as the emergency rooms to accommodate this flood of covid-19 patients. then look behind me. the testing, extremely important. they'll tell you here, you can talk all you want about vaccines, but you have to keep testing. at dodger stadium they've had days where they've tested 11,000 people. unsung heroes of the pandemic, the people conducted the testing, on their feet for lengthy hours, speaking to people in cars who may not have talked to somebody for months,

quelling children sometimes breaking out in tears, comforting each other. >> it's not just about that one person, it's families that are struggling, and in mourning, and the pain it brings. we've definitely known people that have passed from this pandemic, and it's heartbreaking. we had a co-worker who just lost her grandmother last week. a day to mourn, then right back to work. you know, we have a big task in front of us, and we know we've just got to keep on going strong right now. >> reporter: daniel and many of his co-workers fan out and go to other parts of los angeles county, underserved parts, where people may not be getting tested regularly like they should. sometimes it's as simple as they don't have transportation to get to a testing site. reporting from dodger stadium, i'm paul vercammen. israel begins its third national lockdown on sunday as infections surge there.

but the new lockdown will allow most schools to remain open, and people can move about freely, but only within a kilometer of their home. restaurants can also remain open for delivery. let's go to elliot dawkin in tel aviv. the vaccine starting to roll out there, but obviously it will take months to get case numbers down. here we are, yet another lockdown. >> that's right, kim. the government thinks that it will take perhaps three or four weeks of lockdown to get cases down. officially it's two weeks to begin with, but it can be extended to that length of time. the backdrop that is cases in israel have been surging of late. before the weekend, they were around about 4,000 a day on a 24-hour period. and obviously they're keen to get those numbers back down again. you mentioned some of the restrictions. i should note it's not as onerous a lockdown as the previous two. in previous ones, schools have been closed. in the first one, much tighter restrictions. you're not allowed to go beyond

one kilometer beyond your home, with exceptions such as exercising on your own. schools, except grades 5 to 10, will remain open. those grades, 5 to 10, will revert to homeschooling. nonessential businesses will have to close as well. one reason perhaps why we saw stores like ikea over the weekend being very, very full indeed. on the vaccination front, as you say, it has been a week since they started vaccinating here. they've now vaccinated almost 300,000 people, the health ministry says. >> that's a huge number so far. with leaks coming in march, prime minister netanyahu put out a statement suggesting the whole country could be vaccinated in time to cast ballots. is that actually realistic? or is that a political gambit? >> i'm sure there's an element of politicization there, but certainly that's prime minister netanyahu's ambition. he put out a statement or his office about talking about how his target was 150,000

vaccinations every day. he said he'd spoken to the heads of pharmaceutical companies to ask them, can you meet that target? he said they think that they can. he said that would make israel a world record holder, that israel would be the first to emerge from coronavirus. he said that at that rate of 150,000 a day, within 30 days, half the population could be vaccinated. he said that most important was getting all of those in at-risk groups vaccinated because they account for 95% of the fatalities here in israel. so that's his ambition. netanyahu has come in for a lot of criticism for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and he's clearly hoping if he can meet that ambitious target, and if everyone is more or less vaccinated in time for march elections, that could do his political fortunes a world of good. perhaps everyone will be vaccinated in time to cast ballots, perhaps they won't, but certainly right now, netanyahu is talking about this almost as if it's a victory lap, and that

this lockdown israel is set to go into at 5:00 p.m. local time is a tiny little bit of inconvenience, and part of that victory lap towards the prize of vaccinating the entire country ahead of every other country in the world. >> certainly an admirable goal. elliot gotkin in tel aviv, thanks for joining us. let's bring in dr. peter drobak, global health and infectious disease at university of oxford. thank you for joining us. a terrifying statistic in the u.s., 1 of every 1,000 americans have died of covid-19. yet as we speak, large families are traveling and gathering with few restrictions, people getting together to party over the holidays. i can imagine what new year's eve is going to be like. are you surprised at the tolerance for risk given the fact that more and more of us at this point are statistically likely to know someone who died from this disease?

>> thank you for having me. i am surprised. you know, we can all get numb to the numbers, but as you say, at this stage, so many of us have a friend or a loved one who has been victimized by this virus. it's really hard to fathom how, particularly as we see scenes like in california right now, with icus literally out of capacity, with doctors and nurses near collapse, and with the death count continuing to rise, that some are still minimizing the severity of this. >> the good news, the flip side, polls have found nearly 75% of americans are now wearing masks when they leave their homes and the percentage of people who say they'll get the vaccine is rising. one poll had it up to 73%, i think. does that give you cause for optimism? >> it's great news. it's certainly something that we hoped for, that a lot of people who may have been kind of on the fence with these vaccines that have been developed in record time, once we were able to see the scientific scrutiny, then actually see people out getting

vaccines, getting jabs in their arm, that that really started to build more confidence. so the fact that we've gone from maybe around 50% of americans to somewhere in the neighborhood of 70%, at least by some polls, saying they are willing to get vaccinated, is a great sign. of course, there's still a lot more work to do, there's a lot of vaccine misinformation we need to continue to fight. >> a new threat, the new variant spreading in the uk where you are, the first cases found in canada. one can only assume it's here in the u.s. as well. it seems to spread quicker and there's more evidence it's spread particularly quickly among children. some experts in the uk have suggested that in order to control it, we might have to close schools again in the new year. do you think that's likely or advisable? >> i do, actually, think that it's going to be a strong consideration, that it's probably likely. one of the curious things about this particular virus is that children have been relatively spared. maybe about half as likely to get infected when exposed or to

pass it on to others. these are younger children. with this new variant, the early evidence suggests -- this is just from epidemiologic monitoring -- that kids are probably about as likely as adults to get infected. if that's the case, we really have to consider the increased risk of transmission in schools. and certainly here in the uk, where keeping schools open has been a high priority, that would be a significant change. the numbers are going up in terrifying ways right now. i don't think the current restrictions are going to be enough. >> the good news, vaccinations are proceeding apass here in the u.s. in the uk, where you are, in the eu, as we heard, some countries are starting vaccinations. when will we concretely start to see cases go down because of the vaccinations? >> it depends how quickly we get a critical mass of people vaccinated. we've saneeen a lot of estimate somewhere around 70% of a population needing to be vaccinated before we could see a population level herd community

immunity effect. that's assuming the vaccine prevents transmission of virus, which has not yet been conclusively determined. it's still going to be at least several months before we see a meaningful dent at a population level from vaccines. so we have to use all the other tools in our arsenal. social distancing, mask wearing, hand washing, as well as hopefully continuing to increase testing and hopefully support for tracing and isolation. these public health 101 tools are still the best measures we've got to save lives. >> unfortunately, working against that, human nature being what it is. we've already seeing a case of covid-19 vaccine being fraudulently obtained and diverted to members of the public, in the words of the authorities, basically stolen and sold. we're starting to see fake vaccines starting to pop up being sold online and elsewhere. what worries you the most here? >> obviously all of that's a concern. i think the most important thing is that these vaccines, particularly when they're

scarce, are seen as public goods for public health, and their distribution is controlled through governments. you know, as long as that's the case, then people are able to trust that the vaccine they're getting is certified and is going to be effective. obviously there's such high demand. we've seen the wealthy trying to find ways to get doses and offering up to $25,000. that pressure's always going to be there. if we can keep it regulated, keep it public good for public health, i think we're on a good trajectory. >> absolutely. thank you for being with us again, dr. peter drobac with university of oxford, always appreciate it. >> thank you, kim. it is now officially winter in the northern hemisphere, and right on cue, parts of western new york are seeing record snowfalls. the latest on the lake-effect snow warnings when we come back. gotkine,

gotkine, gotkine, test.despite s to take in a little cheer. thousands of lights adorned landmarks like red square, the kremlin, and the bolshoi theater. the city has been decorated to mark new year's day which russians celebrate as their main winter holiday.

millions of americans are in the northeast experiencing lake-effect snow. buffalo, new york, saw nearly 2 feet of snow in one day and the colding reaching down south as millions are under freeze warnings that extend into central florida. let's bring in meteorologist derek van dam. what can you tell us, derek? >> yeah, kim, this is a very localized phenomenon. we're talking about lake-effect snow. it's absolutely fascinating to see how it happens. i'll break down the science, but look at this, we shattered buffalo's 24-hour daytime record for december 26th by almost 8 inches of snow. and equally impressive amounts across the state of new york into indiana and michigan. east of buffalo, you can see how treacherous this snowfall is. when it piles up so quickly, the plows can't keep up, roads become slick. but this is just another average winter day downwind of lake

erie, downwind of lake ontario. this is known as the lake-effect snow belt of america. it is very important to see which way the wind direction is. as meteorologists, this is how you determine where this narrow band of lake-effect snows will take shape, who will get the most snow, who will get nothing. a game of miles here. cold air in place. we've been talking about it for several days. the waters of lakes erie and ontario are extremely warm by comparison. this allows moisture to rise. the topography helps push that moisture into the atmosphere. it cools, condenses, creates cloud. precipitation falls as snow and it piles up. downwind of the lakes you can see pink and purple, that is lake-effect snow that set up over the past several weeks. we're talking about nearly 2 feet deep in many locations. again, it comes down to the direction of the wind. is it west-southwest? is it due southwest? it happened to be from the

southwest, and that is why buffalo saw the most snow. you can see on the radar exactly what i'm talking about. there's that narrow band of precipitation setting up south of buffalo. zoom in just downwind of lake ontario. we're talking about 3 to 5 miles wide. that's the area you forecast for the heaviest snow. if the wind changes by 10 degrees, you've got a shift in that band of snowfall. some locations south of watertown, north of syracuse, may get the heaviest snow. that's why we have lake-effect snow warnings in place. that's thanks to the arctic air that reinforces itself across this area, another round of lake-effect snow in the second part of next week to bring in the new year. fascinating stuff. i love breaking that type of science down for our viewers at home. i think they appreciate it. >> i find it more fascinating watching it and not having to go through all of that snow. >> i agree. >> as i have for many, many years of my life. that's how i like to take it in.

that wraps this hour of "cnn newsroom." i'm kim brunhuber. i'll be back in just a moment with more news. dq cough and co. it's max strength formula coats your throat and provides powerful relief. new dayquil cough and congestion. the maxcoat daytime power through your cough medicine. get their dishes as clean as possible.olks ask me how to i tell them, try cascade platinum plus the power of oxi. it breaks down food soils to clean up to 99% of visible and invisible food residue for a hygienic clean you can see and feel. cascade + the power of oxi. for the better. whatever question i have i feel like there's an avenue to seek the answer. hit that app and you start a story, you're on an adventure.

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